praeiudico

Forms

praeiūdicō (present infinitive praeiūdicāre, perfect active praeiūdicāvī, supine praeiūdicātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin prae- + iūdicō (“to judge”).^[2][3][1] The verb iūdicō is made from iūdex (“judge”), which de Vaan derives from Proto-Italic *jowes-dik- (“judge”), one who speaks the law, a compound of the words behind iūs² (“law”) and dīcō² (“to say”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first examples are in Cicero,^[2] and the TLL counts nine passages in his works.^[3] In the speech for Cluentius he speaks of a man who came to trial after the matter had been prejudged once and again: rē semel atque iterum praeiūdicātā.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It was first a legal term, to give a preliminary judgement on a matter before the main trial.^[2][6] Livy uses it more widely of settling something in advance,^[2] and it is also used of forming an opinion beforehand.^[2][5] The participle praeiūdicātus meant decided beforehand, as in opīniō praeiūdicāta, a preconceived opinion.^[5][6]

In later Latin it was also intransitive with a dative, to be prejudicial to: the jurist Macer, in the Digest, says that matters judged between some people do not prejudice others.^[2][6] Ambrose uses it in this sense too,^[6] and Church Latin kept the meaning “to decide beforehand”.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a matter judged in advance of a trial.^[2][8]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of deciding something in advance.^[2][8]
• c. 340–397 AD – Ambrose uses it in the sense “to be prejudicial to”.^[6][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. (law) To give a preliminary judgement on, prejudge (a matter).^[2][6]
2. To decide or settle in advance.^[2]
3. To form an opinion beforehand; to prejudge.^[2][5]
4. (intransitive, with dative) To be prejudicial to.^[2][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de